In 1982, a Catholic nun from Louisiana began writing letters to a man on death row who had been convicted of rape and murder. They began a correspondence. And when she realized he didn't have visitors, she visited. But she never thought he would be executed — it hadn't happened in the state in 20 years.
The nun was Sister Helen Prejean, and her relationship with Pat Sonnier and witness to his state-mandated death became the subject of Dead Man Walking, her 1993 book that inspired the popular film by the same name, in which Susan Sarandon played Prejean in an Oscar-winning role.
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